Reviewing the BVA TB position

As a government and cattle vet working in England, the control of bovine TB was an ever-present reality in my life for many years. When I upped sticks and moved to Scotland, which has been officially TB free for 13 years, I had hoped worrying about TB would be a thing of the past. Then, last year, I was asked to chair a BVA review of its policy position on the control and eradication of bovine TB.

While the BVA bTB policy position itself was still fairly new, having been published in 2020, it was clear that there had been a mass of new evidence published which had the potential to affect the conclusions of the paper. Furthermore, there had been numerous developments in government policy across the UK. Consequently, we needed to ask if our position was still able to respond to this new context. BVA Policy Committee agreed that a review of our position would be wise to ensure we had total confidence in the position.

I was asked to chair the review group which brought together key perspectives from a range of experts, including epidemiologists and statisticians, colleagues from specialist divisions such as the British Veterinary Zoological Society, British Cattle Veterinary Association and Association of Government Vets, as well as representatives from our Ethics and Welfare Advisory Panel. The broad range of skills and experience in the group enabled us to fully assess the evidence, and I am grateful for the very positive contributions made by everyone who attended. I would also like to thank them for taking the time to read the list of research papers that informed our discussion.

Our review was wide-ranging and looked at several new research papers. These included studies into the efficacy of badger control methods, including culling and vaccination, papers exploring the role of different management strategies such as cattle vaccination and the DIVA test, and social science research which looked at the role of human behaviour in the spread and management of the disease. Our review group undertook a detailed examination of each of the papers and considered their individual and collective impact on BVA’s policy.

After reviewing all the evidence and developments in government policy, the review group concluded that there was no need for any material change to the existing BVA policy at this time. BVA Policy Committee agreed with these conclusions. On 14 December 2022, BVA Council discussed our findings and reapproved the existing BVA policy position.

As our discussion moved through these different pieces of interesting and innovative research, our appreciation of the work of these researchers grew and grew. We were thankful that they had chosen to invest their time and intellect in trying to solve this intractable issue.

Our review group agreed that BVA could do more to highlight the value of research in furthering our understanding of disease and methods of control. As such, an addendum document has been developed to update our bTB research priorities and highlight the incredible value of research and development (R&D) in this area.